Safety appliance for railway-cars.



0. M. MO GK & A. U. GERBER.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAY CARS. APPLIUATION PILED 313.10, 1913.

Patented Feb. 3, .1914.

W if?? 0 COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 60-, WASHINGTON, D. c.

"entree sraras PATENT oerrca.

CHARLES M. IVIOCK AND ARTHUR U. GERBER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAY-(JARSJ To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES M. Moon and ARTHUR U. GERBER, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and Stateof Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in SafetyAppliances for Railway- Cars; and we do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the inventiomrsuch as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

Our invention relates to safety appliances for railway cars, andparticularly for cars having brakes normally held out of engagement withthe wheels and adapted to be applied to the wheels by pneumaticmechanism, which mechanism is set in operation when air pressure isreduced in a brakepipe. In our copending application for U. S. LettersPatent, Ser. No. 743622, we have shown and described a safety applianceof this class in which this brake-actuating reduction of the airpressure in a brake pipe is effected by the rupturing of a closure forthe said pipe, the rupturing being caused by the impingement upon thetrack system of a partially fragile portion of the safety appliance.

Our present invention relates to safety appliances of this class inwhich the brakeactuating reducing of the air pressure is effected by theopening of a valve in the brake-pipe; its prime object being to provideelectrical mechanism for actuating the said valve, and a circuit-closerfor the said mechanism, which circuit-closer will be actuated by theimpingement of a part of the safety appliance against a part of thetrack system. 7

Further objects are to provide means whereby the valve-actuatingmechanism will be maintained in actuating relation for a suflicientlength of time to effect the setting of the brakes even if thecontacting of the impinging part of the safety appliance with the tracksystem has only been 1110- mentary; also to provide means for testingthe valve-actuating apparatus and for releasing the same from itsoperative position.

The single figure of the drawing shows, partly diagrammatically andpartly in section, an embodiment of my invention.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 10, 1913.

Patented Feb. 3,1914.

Serial No. 747,531.

In railway practice it has long been customary to equip each car with anemergency valve or so-called conductors valve operated by a pull' on abell-cord. The same valve could'be used as a part of our applivalvebeing manually operable by pulling the bell-cord 5 in the direction ofthe arrow. For the purpose of our invention, the lever 4 is alsoconnected by a pitrnan 6 to the piston-rod 7 of a piston 30 slidablymounted in a cylinder 8. A small perforation 9 connects the interior ofthe cylinder 8 with a chamber 10 to which compressed air is suppliedfrom the brake-pipe 3 by a branch pipe 11. The perforation 9 is normallyclosed by a tapered pin 12 mounted upon a pivoted lever 13, which leveris held in the said closure position by a spring'14. This lever may bedrawn out of its closureposition by the attraction of an electromagnet15 for an armature 16 carried by the lever. Wires 17, 18 and 19 connectthe said magnet with a battery 20 and a pair of contacts 21 and 25,which contacts are positioned within a casing 23 mounted upon a portionof the car truck in proximity to one of the rails. One of the contacts,21, is insulated from the said casing by a block 2 of hard rubber; whilethe other contact 25 is carried by a plunger 26 slidably mounted in thecap 27 of the casing 23. A spring 28 bearing against a transverse pin 37carried by the plunger 26 holds the latter normally with a considerableair space between the contacts 21 and 25.

The plunger 26 has at its lower end a head 29 so positioned with respectto a rail as to be normally slightly above the top of the rail and toone side of the same. lVhen the wheel adjacent to which the casing 23 ismounted is derailed, the head 29 of the plunger will impinge against therail, thereby sliding the plunger longitudinally and closing the circuitof the battery 20 through the wires 17, 18, 19, the magnet 15 andcontacts 21 and 25, current being carried to Y Consequently, the lever13 Will be drawn toward the magnet, thereby withdrawing the closure pin12 from the perforation 9 and allowing compressed air from the pipes 3and 11 to enter the cylinder 8, thereby actuating the piston 30, whichin turn will actuate the openting lever 4 of the outlet valve 1.

In case the impinging of the head 29 of the member contacting with therail or other part of the track system should only be momentary, or incase part of the contacting mechanism of our safety appliance be damagedby the impact, the circuit through the magnet might only be closedmomentarily, in which case the entrance of compressed air through theport 9 might not be ample to move the piston and operate the emergcncyvalve 1. We, therefore, preferably provide a detent 31 normally heldagainst the end of the armature lever 13 and adapted to slide behind thesame so as to hold the lever close to the magnet against the action ofthe spring 1% when it has once been drawn over by a momentary closing ofthe circuit, thereby keeping the pin 12 out of its closure position andpermitting the continued admission of compressed air to the cylinder 8through the port 9. To guard against the actuating of the piston (andhence of the brake-setting valve 1) by a leakage of compressed airbetween the pin 12 and the port 9 when the pin is in its closureposition, we preferably provide a small vent 32 in the cylinder whichwill emit any air thus leaking into the cylinder, but which will not belarge enough to interfere with the operation of the piston when the pin12 is moved out of its normal closure position.

To test the operative condition of the valve-actuator of our appliance,the battery circuit may be closed by a switch which is preferablypositioned near the actuating mechanism. l i hen the latter has thusbeen tested, the compressed air may be released from the cylinder 8 byopening a pet cock 34:, thereby permitting the return of the lever 1 andthe piston 80 to their normal positions Likewise, the detent 31 may bemanually released by raising the knob 35, while the electrical controlmechanism may be disconnected from the circuit by a switch 36 insertedin the wire 19.

While we have shown and described the device of our invention in anembodiment having a slidably mounted and spring-held circuit closingmember, and having a lever actuated operating mechanism for the valvewhich effects the setting of the brakes, it will be obvious that theseas well as other features of our safety appliance may be varied greatlywithout departing from the spirit of our invention.

-We claim as our invention:

1. A safety appliance for a railway car equipped with an air-brake,comprising a pneumatically actuated brake-setting valve; a pistoncontrolling the same; a cylinder slidingly housing the piston; an aircham ber connected to the compressed air supply of the air-brake system;a passage connecting the air chamber with the interior of the cylinder;an electromagnet housed within the air chamber; a valve carried by thearmature of the electromagnet and controlling the said connection to thecylinder; a source of electricity; a circuit-closer disposed inproximity to the track system and adapted, upon derailment of the car,to be actuated. by contact with a portion of the track system; circuitsconnecting the circuit-closer with the source of electricity and theelectromagnet, whereby the circuit-closer, when actuated, causes theelectromagnet to move its armature and the valve carried thereby; and amanually releasable detent for retaining the armature in the position towhich it is thus moved by the electromagneti 2. A safety appliance for arailway car equipped with an air-brake, comprising a pneumaticallyactuated brake-setting valve; piston controlling the same; a cylinderslidingly housing the piston; an air chamber connected to the compressedair supply of the air-brake system; a passage connecting the air chamberwith the interior of the cylinder; an electrically operable valvecontrolling the said passage; a source of electricity; a circuit-closerdisposed in proximity to the track system and adapted, upon derailmentof the car, to be actuated by contact with a portion of the tracksystem; circuits connecting the circuit-closer with the source ofelectricity and the electrically operable valve, whereby thecircuit-closer, when actuated, will operate the valve to ad mitcompressed air from the air chamber to the interior of the cylinder; amanually releasable detent for retaining the valve in its saidair-admitting position; and a vent for permitting the emission of airfrom the interior of the said cylinder.

in testimony whereof we have signed our names in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

CHARLES M. MOCK.

Witnesses p E. J. K0011, ALBERT Sonmnnn.

Copies oi. this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

ARTHUR U. GERBER.

